After Time Machine reinstall - Photo 2 working. Designer 2 and Publisher 2 not working

[Paul Hill Guitarist]

I recently suffered a catastrophic hardware failure on my iMac and needed to use a Time Machine backup once the main board was replaced. I tried opening documents created previously, although Affinity Designer 2 and Affinity Publisher 2 do not open and freeze when loading, requiring a force quit. Affinity Photo 2 does work.

I have tried re-downloading and installing, rebooting, etc., but I can't get the apps to open.

[MikeTO]

Hi @Paul Hill Guitarist and welcome to the forums. Do you mean the apps won't load or they will open but they won't open documents?

You could try clearing your user data. Start the app with Ctrl held down (press and hold Ctrl immediately after clicking the icon to avoid opening the context menu that happens when ctrl clicking an app icon) and you'll see a screen to clear user data. If the problem is that the app won't open documents, deselect #2 and 3 otherwise just clear what is already selected.

Good luck.

[Paul Hill Guitarist]

5 hours ago, MikeTO said:

Hi @Paul Hill Guitarist and welcome to the forums. Do you mean the apps won't load or they will open but they won't open documents?

You could try clearing your user data. Start the app with Ctrl held down (press and hold Ctrl immediately after clicking the icon to avoid opening the context menu that happens when ctrl clicking an app icon) and you'll see a screen to clear user data. If the problem is that the app won't open documents, deselect #2 and 3 otherwise just clear what is already selected.

Good luck.

Thanks @MikeTO. I tried clearing the user data, although that did not work. I just get the blue Affinity Designer 2 loading/about box and a spinning wheel, requiring me to force quit.

Edited September 8, 2024 by Paul Hill Guitarist

[MikeTO]

Did you install the apps from the Serif website or Apple's App Store?

You could try opening the apps in another user account on your computer to see what happens. If you don't have a second or guest account, just create one with Settings. If you purchased from the Apple App Store, you'll need to Sign in with Apple with the other account.

Alternatively, it could be a font issue. Please see this post from a Serif employee:

Good luck

[Paul Hill Guitarist]

Thank you! I had tried reinstalling from the Serif website. Went to the App Store and installed it from there. The apps are now working. That was simple!